


The Next Generation Read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

by Grace1Risa



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Harry Potter Next Generation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:00:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23517319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grace1Risa/pseuds/Grace1Risa
Summary: The kids of Harry and Ginny plus Teddy find and read The Chamber of Secrets. (I don't own the book, belongs to J.K. Rowling I'm just trying to have some fun)
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	1. The Worst Birthday

Teddy

Lilly II

Albus II

James II

"JAMES! TEDDY! LILLY! Look! I found a book! " Al yelled as he flipped through Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets.

"Al, what are you going on about?" Teddy said as he walked into the 'library' in Harry and Ginny's house.

"I found a book about dad" Al looked around the room "where's Lily and James?" Teddy sighed "they're outside. You'd better be glad your parents aren't home because you would have freaked them out AND they would have seen the book that you have IN YOUR HAND!"

"Right, sorry." Teddy put his hand on Al's shoulder and said "let's go get James and Lily." Al smiled as they went outside.

"Hey, James, Lily." Lily smiled and ran to hug Teddy

"Teddy!" Teddy laughed and hugged her back 

"Al found a book that's about your dad."

"Oh so we'll finally know about what when dad was in school? Cool!" James said as he put down what he was messing with. "Uh, Al?" Al looked at the back of the book "it's dad's second year." Lily smiled. "Isn't it mum's first year too?"

"Yeah I think so. I mean, she's only one year younger than dad, so..."

"What happened to his first year though? I want to see his first year!"

"This is the only one I saw."

"Come on let's read already!"

"Where though?"

"Duh," Lilly laughed "where you found the book!"

"Alright, alright. So... Who wants to read first?"

"I guess I will," said James.

**Chapter one**

**The Worst Birthday.**

_ (oh, great" thought Al. I hoped this was going to be a happy chapter). _

**Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Private Drive. Mr. Vernon Dursley had been woken in the early hours of the morning by a loud, hooting noise from his nephew Harry's room.**

**"Third time this week** !" **He roared across the table. "If you can't control that ruddy owl, it'll have to go!"**

**Harry tried, yet again, to explain. "She's bored," he said. "She's used to flying around outside. If I could just let her out at night-"**

**"Do I look stupid?" Snarled Uncle Vernon, a bit of fried egg dangling from his bushy mustache.**

James interrupted himself "yeah, actually, you do."

**"I know what'll happen if that owl's let out." He exchanged dark looks with his wife, Petunia. Harry tried to argue back but his words were drowned by a long, loud belch from the Dursleys' son, Dudley. "I want more bacon."**

Lily scrunched up her nose "that's disgusting. He could at least say 'excuse me' or something."

**"There's more in the frying pan sweetums," said Aunt Petunia, misty eyes on her massive son. "Nonsense, Petunia, I never went hungry when I was at Smelting's," said Uncle Vernon heartily.**

**"Dudley gets enough, don't you, son?"**

**Dudley, who was so large his bottom dropped over either side of the kitchen chair, grinned and turned at Harry. "Pass the frying pan."**

**"You've forgotten the magic word," said Harry irritably. The effect of this simple sentence on the rest of the family was** **incredible: Dudley gasped and fe of the chair with a crash that shook the whole kitchen; Mrs. Dursley gave a small scream and clamped her hands to her mouth; Mr. Dursley jumped to his feet, veins throbbing in his temples.**

**"I meant 'please'!" said Harry quickly. "I didn't mean-" "WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT SAYING THE 'M' WORD IN OUR HOUSE?" "But I-" "HOW DARE YOU THREATEN DUDLEY!" roared Uncle Vernon, pounding the table with his fist.**

"Dad didn't threaten anyone you fat baboon!" 

"Lily," James said "don't insult the baboons." 

Teddy and Al didn't say anything, they couldn't say anything. It was just a word but they just thought of Uncle Vernon yelling at their Dad and they were angry.

**"I just-"**

**"I WARNED YOU! I WILL NOT TOLERATE MENTION OF YOUR ABNORMALLY-"** "Dad's not abnormal!"

" **UNDER THIS ROOF!"**

**Harry started from his purple-faced uncle** (James laughed thinking about his great-uncle with a purple face, who, of course, he had never met) **to his pale aunt, who was trying to heave Dudley to his feet. "All right," said Harry, "all right..."**

**Uncle Vernon sat back down, breathing like a winded rhinoceros** (this time it was Lily who laughed) **and watching Harry closely out of the corners of his small, sharp eyes.**

**Ever since Harry had come home from the summer holidays, Uncle Vernon had been treating him like a bomb that might go off at any moment, because Harry Potter wasn't a normal boy. As a matter of fact, he was as not normal as it is possible to be** .

**Harry Potter was a wizard.** ("obviously" they all said, looked at each other and laughed because they all said the same thing.) **A wizard fresh from his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.**

"Best school there is!" Lily said "you haven't even been there yet Lilz." Lily folded her arms "but it's still the best school. I know it." Al and James shook their heads and James started reading again before anyone else could talk.

**And if the Dursleys were unhappy to have him back for the holidays,** (Teddy growled at that) **it was nothing to how Harry felt.**

Everyone sighed and looked down for a moment, then continued the book

**"He missed Hogwarts so much it was like having a constant stomach ache. He missed the castle, the passageways, the ghosts, his classes (though perhaps not Snape, the potions master)**

"If dad didn't like Snape, why'd he name me after him?" Before anyone had a chance to answer him first, Teddy said "I heard him once say that he was the bravest man he's ever known. So he must have done something brilliant later on." Al smiled and James continued " **the mail arriving by owl, eating banquets in the Great Hall, sleeping in his four-poster bed in the tower dormitory,** **visiting the gamekeeper, Hagrid,** (Al, Teddy, and James yelled "Hagrid!") **in his cabin next to the Forbidden forest in the grounds, and, especially, Quidditch, the most popular sport in the wizarding world** ("darn right it is!") **(six tall goal posts, four playing balls, and fourteen players on broomsticks).**

**All Harry's spellbooks, his wand, robes, cauldron, and top-of-the-line Nimbus 2000 broomstick had been locked in a cupboard under the stairs by Uncle Vernon the instant Harry had come home.**

**What did the Dursleys care if Harry lost his place on the House Quidditch team because he hadn't practiced all summer?**

"Don't worry dad, you aren't the youngest seeker in a century for nothing. They would never get rid of you!"

**What was it to the Dursleys if Harry went back to school without any of his homework done?**

"Who cares about homework dad?"

"James homework is important."

"No! Teddy has gone to the dark side!"

"Shut up James."

**The Dursleys were what wizards called Muggles (not a drop of magical blood in their veins), and as far as they were concerned, having a wizard in the family was a matter of deepest shame. Uncle Vernon had even padlocked Harry's owl, Hedwig, inside her cage, to stop her from carrying messages to anyone in the wizarding world.**

_ Poor dad had nobody to talk to _ thought Lily.

**Harry looked nothing like the rest of the family**

_ Thank God  _ Al thought.

**Uncle Vernon was large and neckless, with an enormous black mustache; Aunt Petunia was horse-faced and bony; Dudley was blond, pink, and porky. Harry, on the other hand, was small and skinny with brilliant green eyes and jet-black hair**

"Like Al!"

"Oh shut up"  **that was always untidy** .  **He wore round glasses, and on his forehead was a thin, lightning-shaped scar.**

They all scowled, knowing just how he got that.

**It was this scar that made Harry so particularly unusual, even for a wizard. This scar was the only hit of Harry's mysterious past, of the reason he had been left on the Dursleys' doorstep eleven years before.**

“WHAT?! Why would you leave a baby on a doorstep! 

**At the age of one year old, Harry had somehow survived a curse from the greatest Dark sorcerer of all time, Lord Voldemort, whose name most witches and wizards still feared to speak.**

"Teddy," Lily started to say, "why didn't people say his name?" 

Teddy sighed "because he was a horrible person-if you can even call him that- who killed everyone's families, like your dad's and my parents. They didn't even know if he was really gone, and he was there for 11 years. He was horrible. Inflicted pain and he enjoyed it. James, keep reading."

**Harry's parents had died in Voldemort's attack,**

"Grandma and grandpa" Lily said  **but Harry had escaped with his lightning scar, and somehow - nobody understood why-** "Didn't Dad say that Dumbledore knew?"  **Voldemort's powers had been destroyed the instant he failed to kill Harry.**

"Go dad!"

**So, Harry had been brought up by his dead mother's sister and her husband. He had spent ten years with the Dursleys** ,

"Dad always said that there was Sirius. Why didn't he live with him or your dad?"

"You have to understand. Sirius was in Azkaban and my dad was a werewolf. Nobody would have let him live with my dad."

"Oh, right. Dad never talks about Sirius or anyone who had died during the war if he can help it." Lily's eyes were system to water like she was about to cry "I hate him. I HATE HIM!"

"Lily, are you okay?" 

"No, I am not okay! I HATE HIM!"

"Who?"

"Voldemort, obviously! He killed so many people and he didn't care! I'm glad he's dead because I would probably have searched for him to kill him myself-”

''Lily! Calm down. He's dead and he isn't coming back." 

"Good".

**never understanding why he kept making odd things happen without meaning to, believing the Dursleys' story that he had got his scar in a car crash that had killed his parents.**

**And then, exactly a year ago, Hogwarts had written to Harry, and the whole story had come out. Harry had taken up his place at the wizard school, where he and his scar were famous ... But now the school year was over, and he was back with the Dursleys**

“Sadly.”

“Shut up, Al.”

**for the unmet, back to being treated like a dog that had rolled in something smelly. the Dursleys hadn't even remembered that today happened to be Harry's twelfth birthday. of course, his hopes hadn't been too high; they'd never given him a real present, let alone a cake - but to ignore it completely …**

**At that moment, Uncle Vernon cleared his throat and said, "Now, as we all know, today is a very important day."** James looked up from the book, shocked. "No way they'd remember his birthday, right?" Lily said, Al shrugged, and James kept reading.

**Harry looked up, hardly daring to believe it.**

**"This could well be the day I make the biggest deal of my career," said Uncle Vernon.**

**Harry went back to his toast.** **_Of course,_ ** **he thought bitterly,** **_Uncle Vernon was talking about the stupid dinner party._ ** **He'd been talking of nothing else for two weeks. Some rich builder and his wife were coming to dinner and Uncle Vernon was hoping to get a huge order from him (Uncle Vernon's company made drills).**

"What are drills?"

"They're something used to make holes in something to put a screw in the object."

"What's a screw?" Teddy sighed 

"It's something attached to another object wrapped helically around an axis."

"What?" 

Teddy groaned "anything muggle you don't understand just write it down and then ask Hermione."

"Okay." They all got a pen and paper and wrote  _ screws  _ down.

**"I think we should run through the schedule one more time," said Uncle Vernon. "We should all be in position at eight o'clock. Petunia you will be-?"**

**"In the lounge," said Aunt Petunia promptly, "waiting to welcome them graciously to our home."**

**"Good, good. And Dudley?"**

**"I'll be waiting to open the door." Dudley put on a foul, simpering smile. "May I take your coats Mr. and Mrs. Mason?"**

**"They'll** **_love_ ** **him!" cried Aunt Petunia rapturously. "Excellent, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon. Then he rounded on Harry. "And** **_you?"_ **

**"I'll be in my bedroom, making no noise and pretending I'm not there," said Harry tonelessly.**

"I think I now get why Dad always makes a big deal out of our birthdays." said Al. At Hogwarts, their dad, Teddy's Godfather, would always make sure they had the best one ever.

"I used to think it was all pointless. Like It's a birthday, no matter what you always get presents … but now... dad never had a good home life. I feel like we're taking everything we have for granted, you know?" Everyone else nodded. 

**"Exactly," said Uncle Vernon nastily. "I will lead them into the lounge, introduce you, Petunia, and pour them drinks. At eight-fifteen -"**

**"I'll announce dinner," said Aunt Petunia.**

**"And, Dudley, offering his fat arm to an invisible woman.**

**"My perfect little gentleman!" sniffed Aunt Petunia.**

**"And** **_you_ ** **?"** ("Oh, not again")  **said Uncle Vernon viciously to Harry. "I'll be in my room, making no noise and pretending I'm not there." Harry said dully.**

**"Precisely. Now, we should aim to get in a few good compliments at dinner. Petunia, any ideas?"**

**"Vernon tells me you're a** **_wonderful golfer,_ ** **Mr. Mason...** **_Do_ ** **tell me where you bought your dress, Mrs. Mason..."**

**"Perfect... Dudley?"**

**"How about - 'we had to write an essay about our hero in school and** **_I_ ** **wrote about** **_you._ ** **Mr. Mason.'"**

"He's such a suck up. YOU aren't even that bad Lils."

"What- I AM NOT!"

"Uh, yeah, you are."

"AL! LILY! STOP! James, KEEP READING." Teddy stopped them before they could continue.

**This was too much for both Aunt Petunia and Harry. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and hugged her son, while Harry ducked under the table so they wouldn't see him laughing.**

**"And you, boy?" Harry fought to keep his face straight as he emerged. "I'll be in my bedroom, making no noise and pretending I'm not there." He said.**

" **Too right you will," said Uncle Vernon forcefully.**

" **The Masons don't know anything about you and it's going to stay that way. When dinner's over, you take Mr. Mason back to the lounge for coffee, Petunia, and I'll bring the subject around to drills. With any luck, I'll have signed and sealed before the news at ten. We'll be shopping for a vacation home this time tomorrow."**

**Harry couldn't feel too excited about this. He didn't think the Dursleys would like him any better in Majorca then they did on Private Drive.**

"It's ok dad, we do."

**Right- I'm off into town to pick up the dinner jackets for Dudley and me. And** **_you,_ ** **he snarled at Harry.**

"You leave him alone you, you…" Lily couldn't think of anything else so James decided to finish it for her "fat cow." 

"James, how many times has it been said- DON'T INSULT THE COWS." 

"I apologise to all cows I just insulted. I didn't mean to imply that you’re complete gits.”

" **you stay away from your aunt while she's cleaning."**

**Harry left through the back door. It was a brilliant, sunny day. He crossed the lawn, slumped down on the garden bench, and sang under his breath:**

" **Happy birthday to me … Happy birthday to me …" No cards, no presents, and he would be spending his evening pretending not to exist. He gazed miserably into the hedge. He had never felt so lonely.**

"Where's Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron? Why aren't they sending him anything?" Al asked.

**More than anything else at Hogwarts, even more than playing Quidditch,**

"what?! More important than  _ that?" _

"Oh come on James, there are more important things than Quidditch."

**Harry missed his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. They, however, didn't seem to be missing him at all.**

"Of course they do dad. They must have just been busy."

"For this long? I don't think so."

**Neither of them had written to him all summer, even though Ron had said he was going to ask Harry to come and stay.**

**Countless times Harry had been on the point of unlocking Hedwig's cage by magic and sending her to Ron and Hermione with a letter, but it wasn't worth the risk. Underage wizards weren't allowed to use magic outside of school.**

**Harry hadn't told the Dursleys this; he knew it was only their terror that he might turn them all into dung beetles that stopped** **_him_ ** **in the cupboard under the stairs-**

"They wouldn't!" Al said. 

"It's the Dursleys. Anything is possible."

**With his wand and broomstick. For the first couple of weeks back, Harry had enjoyed muttering nonsense words under his breath and watching Dudley tearing out of the room as fast as his fat legs could carry him. But the long silence from Ron and Hermione had made Harry feel so cut off from the magical world that even taunting Dudley had lost its appeal- and now Ron and Hermione had forgotten his birthday.**

"Dad, I bet they didn't forget, there must have been a problem. They love you too much to forget about you!"

**What he wouldn't give for a message from Hogwarts? From any witch or wizard? He'd also be glad of a sight of his archenemy, Draco Malfoy, just to be sure it hadn't all been a dream.**

All of the kids in the room looked at each other "Dad and Malfoy didn't get along? Woah."

**Not that his whole year at Hogwarts had been fun. At the very end of term, Harry had come face-to-face with none other than Lord Voldemort himself.**

**Voldemort might be a ruin of his former self, but he was still terrifying, still cunning, still determined to regain power. Harry had slipped through Voldemort's clutches for the second time, but it had been a narrow escape, and now, even weeks later, Harry kept waking in the night, drenched in cold sweat, wondering where Voldemort was now, remembering his livid face with his wide, mad eyes-**

"Daddy's having nightmares about him?" Lily's voice shook. 

**Harry suddenly sat bolt upright on the garden bench. He had been staring absent-mindedly into the hedge-** **_and the hedge was staring back._ ** **Two enormous green eyes had appeared among the leaves.**

**Harry jumped to his feet just as a jeering voice floated across the lawn.**

" **I know what day it is," sang Dudley, waddling toward him.**

**The huge eyes blinked and vanished.**

" **What?" said Harry, not taking his eyes off the spot where they had been.**

" **I know what day it is."**

"Good for you, you've finally learned the days of the week." Al said.

" **Well done," said Harry. " you've finally learned the days of the week."**

"Hey, Al, you don't only look like dad, you talk like him too. Or can you see the future- like in divination?" Al narrowed his eyes "just shut up and keep reading. This is taking too long. I want to finish this before I die."

" **Today's your** **_birthday_ ** **," sneered Dudley. "How come you haven't got any cards? Haven't you even got friends at that freaky place?"**

" **Better not let your mum hear you talking about my school," said Harry cooly. Dudley hitched up his trousers, which were slipping down from his fat bottom.**

" **Why're you staring at that hedge?" He said suspiciously.**

" **I'm trying to decide what would be the best spell to set it on fire."**

_ Good job, dad. Freak him out. _

**Dudley stumbled back at once, a look of panic on his fat face.**

" **You c-can't – dad told you you're not to do m-magic – he said he'd chuck you out of the house- and you haven't got anywhere else to go – you haven't any** **_friends_ ** **to take**

**you-"**

" ** _Jiggery pokery!"_** **said Harry** **in a fierce voice.** ** _"Hocus pocus – squiggly wiggly –"_**

" **MUUUUM!" Howled Dudley, tripping over his feet as he ran towards the house. "MUUUM! He's doing you know what!"**

"Oh my gosh, how  _ stupid _ can he be to believe  _ that _ ?

**Harry paid dearly for his moment of fun.**

Everyone's stomach clenched at that.

**As neither Dudley nor the hedge was in any way hurt, Aunt Petunia had known he hadn't really done magic, but he still had to duck as she aimed a heavy blow to his head with the soapy frying pan.**

Lily, James, Al and Teddy sat in shock. How could someone do that to a  _ twelve year old!  _ "I swear if I ever see her I'm going to give her a piece of my mind!"

"How dare she! Isn't that abuse or something?"

Teddy couldn't speak. He was working with other wizards to help the kids with horrible families get a better place. (He was working to be something what people would call in a muggle world 'child protective services'.)

James had dropped the book, wondering how anyone could do this. He looked at Lily and saw that she was almost in tears. He knew that she loved her father more than anything else- she was a daddy's girl. He hated to see her like this, and hoped that his father would get away from these horrible people soon.

Albus, however, was planning the deaths of his father's aunt and uncle. He was half hoping he'd meet them so he could tell them off, and half hoping he wouldn't so that he wouldn't see the people who hurt his father.

It took a few minutes and, finally, James cleared his throat and started to read again.

**Then she gave him work to do, with the promise he wouldn't eat again until he'd finished.**

**Dudley had lolled around watching and eating ice cream, Harry cleaned the windows, washed the car, mowed the lawn, trimmed the flower beds, pruned and watered the roses, and repainted the garden bench. The sun blazed verged, burning the back of his neck. Harry knew he shouldn't have risen to Dursleys bait, but Dudley had said the very thing Harry had been thinking himself … maybe he** **_didn't_ ** **have any friends at Hogwarts….**

**_Wish they could see famous Harry Potter now,_ ** **he thought savagely as he spread manure on the flower beds, his back aching, sweat running down his face.**

**It was half past seven in the evening when at last, exhausted, he heard Aunt Petunia calling him.**

" **Get in here and walk on the newspaper!"**

**Harry moved gladly into the shade of the gleaming kitchen. On top of the fridge stood tonight's pudding: a huge cloud of whipped cream and sugared violets. A loin of roast pork was sizzling in the oven.**

" **Eat quickly! The Masons will arrive here soon!" Snapped Aunt Petunia, pointing to two slices of bread and a lump of cheese on the kitchen table. She was already wearing a salmon-pink cocktail dress.**

**Harry washed his hands and bolted down his pitiful supper. The moment he had finished, Aunt Petunia whisked away his plate. "Upstairs! Hurry!"**

" **As he passed the door to the living room, Harry caught a glimpse of Uncle Vernon and Dudley in cowries and dinner jackets. He had only just reached the upstairs leaning when the doorbell rang and Uncle Vernon's furious face appeared at the foot of the stairs.**

" **Remember, boy- one sound –"**

"Harry better not make a sound. Because if anything happens I'm going to hunt them down and I will probably end up in Azkaban."

**Harry crises to his bedroom on tiptoe, slipped inside, closed the door and turned to collapse on his bed.**

**The trouble was, there was already someone sitting on it.**

James put the book down, put a bookmark in it, and looked around "want to bet on who it is?" 

Teddy shook his head "it could be anyone. I don't want to take the risk-" but someone interrupted him before he finished

"I bet it's someone that is dead." 

"No, Al, that's too broad. There's a ton of people that have died." 

Al sighed "fine. Uh… I think it's Uncle Ron."

"Alrighty then. I bet it's not."

"Who wants to read this time?"

"I will," said Al. 


	2. Dobby's Warning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dobby warns Harry about going back to Hogwarts, telling him about the danger that awaits him there. Harry gets into trouble with the Dursleys.

**Chapter 2: Dobby’s Warning**

“Darn it.” 

“Pay up, Al.” James grinned

“Fine,” Al sighed “how much?”

“Keep reading and I’ll think about it.” 

**Harry managed not to shout out, but it was a close thing. The little creature on the bed had large, bat-like ears and bulging green eyes the size of tennis balls. Harry knew instantly that this was what had been watching him out of the garden hedge that morning.**

“Oh, Dobby. I’ve heard that name before!”

“What are you talking about Teddy?”

“Dobby the house elf. Come on guys you’ve been to Shell Cottage. The grave is out there.” Everyone just sat there and stared blankly at him “do you guys really not remember?”

They shook their heads, “no Teddy, we don’t.” 

Teddy sighed, “just keep reading Albus.”

**As they stared at each other, Harry heard Dudley’s voice from the hall. “May I take your coats, Mr. and Mrs. Mason?” The creature slipped off the bed and bowed so low that the end of its long, thin nose touched the carpet. Harry noticed that it was wearing what looked like an old pillowcase, with rips for arm- and leg-holes.**

**“Er — hello,” said Harry nervously. “Harry Potter!” said the creature in a high-pitched voice Harry was sure would carry down the stairs. “So long has Dobby wanted to meet you, sir . . . Such an honor it is. . . .” “Th-thank you,” said Harry, edging along the wall and sinking into his desk chair, next to Hedwig, who was asleep in her large cage. He wanted to ask, “What are you?” but thought it would sound too rude, so instead he said, “Who are you?”**

**“Dobby, sir. Just Dobby. Dobby the house-elf,” said the creature. “Oh — really?” said Harry. “Er — I don’t want to be rude or anything, but — this isn’t a great time for me to have a house-elf in my bedroom.” Aunt Petunia’s high, false laugh sounded from the living room. The elf hung his head. “Not that I’m not pleased to meet you,” said Harry quickly, “but, er, is there any particular reason you’re here?”**

**“Oh, yes, sir,” said Dobby earnestly. “Dobby has come to tell you, sir … it is difficult, sir … Dobby wonders where to begin….” “Sit down,” said Harry politely, pointing at the bed. To his horror, the elf burst into tears - very noisy tears.**

**“S-sit** **_down_ ** **!” He wailed.** **_“Never … never ever …”_ ** **Harry thought he heard the voices downstairs falter. “I’m sorry,” he whispered “I didn’t mean to offend you or anything -” “offend Dobby!” choked the elf. “Dobby has** **_never_ ** **been asked to sit down by a wizard - like an equal -”**

**Harry, trying to say “Shh!” and look comforting at the same time, ushered Dobby back onto the bed where he sat hiccoughing, looking like a large and very ugly doll. At least he managed to control himself, and sat with his great big eyes fixed on Harry in an expression of watery adoration.**

**“You can’t have met many decent wizards,” said Harry, trying to cheer him up.**

**Dobby shaked his head. Then, without warning, he leapt up and started banging his head furiously on the window, shouting “bad Dobby! Bad Dobby!”**

**“Don’t - what are you doing?” Harry hissed, springing up and pulling Dobby onto the bed - Hedwig had woken up with a particularly loud screech and was beating up her wings wildly against the bars of the cage.**

**“Dobby had to punish himself sir,” said the elf, who had gone slightly cross-eyed “Dobby almost spoke ill of his family, sir ... “**

**“Your family?”**

**“The wizard family Dobby serves, sir … Dobby is a house-elf bound to serve one house and one family forever ….”**

“So that’s why Aunt Hermione started S.P.E.W.” 

“It’s not S.P.E.W. James. It's the Society for the Promotion of Elvish Warfare.” 

“It’s S.P.E.W., Lily. Even Uncle Ron says it is.”

“Aunt Hermione says it’s not; she came up with it, so I believe her.”

“Whatever Lils.” 

“No wonder she was so strong-willed about it. She knew an elf and wanted them to have their own choices.” 

“Harry and Ron did too, but they said she wouldn’t stop pestering them about signing her petition and getting others to sign as well.”

**“Do they know you’re here?” asked Harry curiously.**

**Dobby shuddered “oh no sir, no… Dobby will have to punish himself most grievously to punish himself for coming to see you, sir. Dobby will have to shut his ears in the oven door for this, sir. If they ever knew, sir -”**

**“But won’t they notice if you shut your ears in the oven door?” “Dobby doubts it, sir. Dobby is always having to punish himself for something, sir. They let Dobby get on with it, sir. Sometimes they remind me to do extra punishments. . . .”**

**“But why don’t you leave? Escape?” “A house-elf must be set free, sir. And the family will never set Dobby free . . . Dobby will serve the family until he dies, sir. . . .”**

“Poor Dobby. I wish I knew who his ‘family’ was and how they could ever treat someone else this way.”

“Remember, Lily, magical creatures don’t have the same rights as Witches and Wizards. Look at my dad, for example. He would have loved to not be treated differently after everyone found out what he was. Harry said that my mum didn’t care about his differences, but some do care, and they care deeply. 

“They don’t want things to change. They want everything to stay the same, even though they shouldn’t.”

“Yeah I know, Teddy. It’s just hard thinking about someone hurting someone else. I mean, we’ve already been hearing about how these - people - have been treating Dad, but, you said that Dobby was buried near Aunt Fleur and Uncle Bill’s Cottage, and I know that Dad doesn’t like seeing others getting hurt. Especially the ones he loves, and-” 

“Yeah yeah Lily, we got it. Can we continue now?” James interrupted.

“Hmph.” 

**Harry stared. “And I thought I had it bad staying here for another four weeks,” he said.**

**“This makes the Dursleys sound almost human. Can’t anyone help you? Can’t I?” Almost at once, Harry wished he hadn’t spoken. Dobby dissolved again into wails of gratitude.**

**“Please,” Harry whispered frantically, “please be quiet. If the Dursleys hear anything, if they know you’re here — ``''Harry Potter asks if he can help Dobby . . . Dobby has heard of your greatness, sir, but of your goodness, Dobby never knew. . . .”**

They all smiled; they knew that their Dad wasn’t very fond of people being in awe of him.

**Harry, who was feeling distinctly hot in the face, said, “Whatever you’ve heard about my greatness is a load of rubbish. I’m not even top of my year at Hogwarts; that’s Hermione, she — ” But he stopped quickly, because thinking about Hermione was painful.**

**“Harry Potter is humble and modest,” said Dobby reverently, his orb-like eyes aglow. “Harry Potter speaks not of his triumph over He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named — ” “Voldemort?” said Harry. Dobby clapped his hands over his bat ears and moaned, “Ah, speak not the name, sir! Speak not the name!”** (“Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself,” mumbled Lily.) **“Sorry,” said Harry quickly. “I know lots of people don’t like it. My friend Ron-”**

**He stopped again. Thinking about Ron was painful, too.**

**Dobby leaned toward Harry, his eyes wide as headlights.**

**“Doggy heard tell,” he said hoarsely, “that Harry Potter met the Dark Lord for a second time, just weeks ago … that Harry Potter escaped** **_yet again.”_ **

“‘Again?’ What does he mean by ‘again’?”

“Well, that usually means something has happened more than once.” 

“Oh shut up, you know what I mean. No need to be so sarcastic you know.” 

**Harry nodded and Dobby’s eyes suddenly shone with tears.**

**“Ah, sir,” he gasped, dabbing his face with a corner of the grubby pillowcase he was wearing. “Harry Potter is valiant and bold! He has braved so many dangers already! But Dobby has come to protect Harry Potter, to warn him, even if he** **_does_ ** **have to shut his ears in the oven door later.…** **_Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts.”_ **

_ “ _ What does he mean ‘not go back’ how can he not go back- it’s Hogwarts. Everyone says that it’s one of the safest places on Earth!” 

“Hagrid is the only one I’ve ever heard say that, James,” Teddy said “and no matter how much I love Hagrid, you know how he is.”

“Yeah, I suppose, but still…” 

**There was a silence broken only by the chink of knives and forks downstairs and the distant rumble of Uncle Vernon’s voice.**

**“W-what?” Harry stammered. “But I’ve got to go back - the term starts on September first. It’s all that’s keeping me going. You don’t know what it’s like here. I don’t** **_belong_ ** **here. I belong in your world - at Hogwarts.”**

**“No, no, no,” squeaked Dobby, shaking his head so hard his ears flapped. “Harry Potter must stay where he is safe. He is too great, too good, to lose. If Harry Potter goes back to Hogwarts, he will be in mortal danger.”**

**“Why?” said Harry in surprise.**

**“There is a plot, Harry Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year,” whispered Dobby, suddenly trembling all over. “Dobby has known it for months, sir. Harry Potter must not put himself in peril. He is too important, sir!”**

**“What terrible things?” said Harry at once. “Who’s plotting them?”**

**Dobby made a funny choking noise and then banged his head frantically against the wall.**

_ Oh, why can’t you stop making so much noise! You’re going to get Dad in trouble! _

**“Alright!” cried Harry, grabbing the elf’s arm to stop him. “You can’t tell me. I understand. But why are you warning** **_me_ ** **?” A sudden, unpleasant thought struck him. “Hang on — this hasn’t got anything to do with Vol — sorry — with You-Know-Who, has it? You could just shake or nod,” he added hastily as Dobby’s head tilted worryingly close to the wall again.**

**Slowly, Dobby shook his head. “Not — not He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, sir — ” But Dobby’s eyes were wide and he seemed to be trying to give Harry a hint. Harry, however, was completely lost.**

**“He hasn’t got a brother, has he?” Dobby shook his head, his eyes wider than ever. “Well then, I can’t think who else would have a chance of making horrible things happen at Hogwarts,” said Harry. “I mean, there’s Dumbledore, for one thing — you know who Dumbledore is, don’t you?”**

**Dobby bowed his head.**

**“Albus Dumbledore is the greatest headmaster Hogwarts has ever had. Dobby knows it, sir. Dobby has heard Dumbledore’s powers rival those of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named at the height of his strength. But, sir” — Dobby’s voice dropped to an urgent whisper — “there are powers Dumbledore doesn’t . . . powers no decent wizard . . .”**

**And before Harry could stop him, Dobby bounded off the bed, seized Harry’s desk lamp, and started beating himself around the head with ear splitting yelps.**

**A sudden silence fell downstairs. Two seconds later Harry, heart thudding madly, heard Uncle Vernon coming into the hall, calling, “Dudley must have left his television on again, the little tyke!”**

**“Quick! In the closet!” hissed Harry, stuffing Dobby in shutting the door and flinging himself onto the bed just as the door handle turned.**

**“What - the -** **_devil -_ ** **are you - doing?” said Uncle Vernon through gritted teeth, his face horribly close to Harry’. “You’ve just ruined the punch line of my Japanese golfer joke. … one more sound and you’ll wish you’d never been born, boy!”**

Everyone scowled, Teddy clenching his jaw, James clenching his fists, and Lily looking like she was ready to march out of the room in search of the fat, ugly man.

**He stomped flat-footed from the room.**

**Shaking, Harry let Dobby out of the closet.**

**“See what it’s like here?” he said. “See why I’ve got to go back to Hogwarts? It’s the only place I've got - well, I** **_think_ ** **I’ve got friends.”**

_ You do have friends, Dad. _

**“Friends who don’t even** **_write_ ** **to Harry Potter?” said Doby slyly.**

“Wait - how did Dobby even know that?” Al said, softly.

“He didn’t” James said, Lily saying at the same time “He wouldn’t  _ dare  _ -”

**“I expect they’ve just been - wait a minute,” said Harry, frowning. “How do** **_you_ ** **know my friends haven’t been writing to me?”**

**Dobby shuffled his feet.**

**“Harry Potter mustn't be angry with Dobby. Dobby did it for the best-”**

**_“Have you been stopping my letters?”_ **

**“Dobby has them here, sir,” said the elf. Stepping nimbly out of Harry’s reach, he pulled a thick wad of envelopes from the inside of the pillowcase he was wearing. Harry could make out Hermione’s neat writing, Ron’s untidy scrawl, and even a scribble that looked as though it was from the Hogwarts gamekeeper, Hagrid.**

**Dobby blinked anxiously up at Harry.**

**“Harry Potter mustn't be angry…. Dobby hopped … if Harry Potter thought his friends had forgotten him … Harry Potter might not want to go back to school, sir…”**

**Harry wasn’t listening. He made a grab for the letters, but Dobby jumped out of reach.**

**“Harry Potter will have them, sir, if he gives Dobby his word that he will not return to Hogwarts. ah , sir, this is a danger you must not face! Say you won’t go back, sir!”**

**“No,” said Harry angrily. “Give me my friends’ letters!”**

**“Then Harry Potter leaves Dobby no choice,” said the elf sadly. Before Harry could move, Dobby had darted to the bedroom door, pulled it open, and sprinted down the stairs.**

They all gasped as Al read  _ ‘sprinted down the stairs’ _ .

**Mouth dry, stomach lurching, Harry sprang after him, trying not to make a sound. He jumped the last six steps, landing catlike on the hall carpet, looking around for Dobby. From the dining room he heard Uncle Vernon saying, “ tell Petunia that very funny story about those American plumbers, Mr. Mason. She’s been dying to hear…”**

**Harry ran up the hall into the kitchen and felt his stomach disappear.**

**Aunt Petunia’s masterpiece of a pudding, the mountain of cream and sugared violets, was floating up near the ceiling On top of a cupboard in the corner crouched Dobby.**

**“No, croaked Harry “Please … they’ll kill me…”**

**“Harry Potter must say he’s not going back to school — ”**

**“Dobby… please…”**

**“Say it, sir — ”**

**“I can’t —”**

**Dobby gave him a tragic look.**

**“Then Dobby must do it, sir, for Harry Potter’s own good.”**

“How could this possibly be for his own good,” James turned to Teddy 

“I thought you said he was a friend. How could a friend, knowing what they did would hurt the other, do it? So far, I’m not a fan of him.”

“Um,” Teddy stuttered, “I’m not sure… I never heard about him doing this… but I do know what I was told - which was - he was a kind and good elf, so…” 

“Let’s just continue, yeah? This is only the second chapter after all. And there are…” Al flipped through the book, “about 17 chapters. There’s still time for us to hear more about him. Let’s keep going.” 

**The pudding fell to the floor with a heart-stopping crasha Cream splattered the windows and walls as the dish shattered. With a crack like a whip, Dobby vanished.**

**There were screams from the dining room and Uncle Vernon burst into the kitchen to find Harry, rigid with shock, covered from head to foot in Aunt Petunia’s pudding.**

**At first, it looked as though Uncle Vernon would manage to gloss the whole thing over. (“Just our nephew - very disturbed - meeting strangers upsets him, so we kept him upstairs. …”} He shooed the shocked Masons back into the dining room, promised Harry he would flay him to within an inch of his life when the Mason’s had left,and handed him a mop. Aunt Petunia dug some ice cream out of the freezer and Harry, still shaking, started scrubbing the kitchen clean.**

“Teddy,” Lily turned her head “what does ‘flay’ mean?” 

Albus looked up from the book, looking at James and Lily who looked confused, then at Teddy, who looked downright murderous. 

James, who looked like he was trying to figure out what it meant so he didn’t have to give in and ask Teddy himself, looked up at Teddy, seeing what everyone else saw, looking back down so he didn’t have to see his expression, which, to be honest, scared him a bit. 

He was thankful when Lily asked Teddy what it meant. 

Teddy closed his eyes and took a deep breath, once he calmed himself down enough to not make it seem like he was angry with Lily, he answered “it - it means,” he took another deep breath “flay means to whip or beat someone so hard that their skin comes off.” 

Lily started crying, from hearing those words. “Those wretched people. I can’t believe that Dumbledore left Dad to them. Surely he knew what they were like, right? He wouldn’t just leave him there without scoping them out first…” 

“Teddy,” James looked up at him “is this why you work for the children? To make sure no child gets hurt like this? Did you know they hurt him?”

“No, James, that’s not why I do what I do. I mean, it’s a little bit of why - I mean - I did know that they weren’t the nicest to him and that’s why none of us have met them, but no, I did not know just how cruel they were.” 

**Uncle Vernon might still have been able to make his deal - if it hadn’t been for the owl.**

“Uh oh. His leverage of being able to do magic outside of school is now gone.”

“What do you mean?”

“You can’t do magic outside of Hogwarts, James, don’t you remember?”

“Yeah, but what does that have anything to do with -” 

“Dobby just used magic. Use your brain.”

“Oh.” 

**Aunt Petunia was just passing around a box of after-dinner mints when a huge barn owl swooped through the dining room window, dropped a letter on Mrs. Mason’s head, and swooped out again. Mrs. Mason screamed like a banshee and ran from the house shouting about lunatics. Mr. Mason stayed just long enough to tell the Dursleys that his wife was mortally afraid of birds of all shapes and sizes, and to ask whether this was their idea of a joke.**

**Harry stood in the kitchen, clutching the mop for support, as Uncle Vernon advanced on him, a demonic glint in his tiny eyes.”**

**“Read it!” he hissed evilly, brandishing the letter the owl had delivered. “Go on - read it!”**

**Harry took it. It did not contain birthday greetings.**

**  
  
**

**Dear Mr. Potter,**

**We have received intelligence that a Hover Charm was used at your place of residence this eventing at twelve minutes past nine. As you know, underage wizards are not permitted to perform spells outside school, and further spellwork on your part may lead to expulsion from said school (Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Ungerage Sorcery, 1875, Paragraph C).**

**We would also ask you to remember that any magical activity that risks notice by members of the non-magical community (Muggles) is a serious offence under section 13 of the International Confederation of Warlock’s Statute of Secrecy.**

**Enjoy your holidays!**

**Yours sincerely,**

**Mafalda Hopkirk**

**Mafalda Hopkirk**

**IMPROPER USE OF MAGIC OFFICE**

**_Ministry of Magic_ **

****  
  


**Harry looked up from the letter and gulped.**

**“You didn’t tell us you weren’t allowed to use magic outside school,” said Uncle Vernon, a mad gleam dancing in his eyes. “Forgot to mention it. . . . Slipped your mind, I daresay…”**

**He was bearing down on Harry like a great bulldog, all his teeth bared. “Well, I’ve got news for you, boy. . . . I’m locking you up. . . . You’re never going back to that school . . . never . . . and if you try and magic yourself out — they’ll expel you!”**

“They’d come looking for him though, right? I mean, they have to have a statement on why their student is not coming back to Hogwarts.”

**And laughing like a maniac, he dragged Harry back upstairs.**

**Uncle Vernon was as bad as his word. The following morning, he paid a man to fit bars on Harry’s window. He himself fitted a cat-flap in the bedroom door, so that small amounts of food could be pushed inside three times a day.**

“They could - and should - be arrested for child abuse. I mean, they really hate magic that much?” 

“Personally, I think they were more afraid of it than anything else. I mean, you know how when Dad just made up a spell and Dudley went running? They can’t explain it, so they’re afraid, and they’ll do anything to get rid of it, you know?”

**They let Harry out to use the bathroom morning and evening. Otherwise, he was locked in his room around the clock. Three days later, the Dursleys were showing no sign of relenting, and Harry couldn’t see any way out of his situation. He lay on his bed watching the sun sinking behind the bars on the window and wondered miserably what was going to happen to him.**

**What was the good of magicking himself out of his room if Hogwarts would expel him for doing it? Yet life at Privet Drive had reached an all-time low. Now that the Dursleys knew they weren’t going to wake up as fruit bats, he had lost his only weapon. Dobby might have saved Harry from horrible happenings at Hogwarts, but the way things were going, he’d probably starve to death anyway.**

**The cat-flap rattled and Aunt Petunia’s hand appeared, pushing a bowl of canned soup into the room. Harry, whose insides were aching with hunger, jumped off his bed and seized it. The soup was stone-cold, but he drank half of it in one gulp. Then he crossed the room to Hedwig’s cage and tipped the soggy vegetables at the bottom of the bowl into her empty food tray. She ruffled her feathers and gave him a look of deep disgust.**

**“It’s no good turning your beak up at it - that’s all we’ve got,” said Harry grimly.**

**He put the empty bowl back on the floor next to the cat-flap and lay back down on the bed, somehow even hungrier than he had been before the soup.**

**Supposing he was still alive in another four weeks, what would happen if he didn’t turn up at Hogwarts? Would someone be sent to see why he hadn’t come back? Would they be able to make the Dursleys let him go?**

**The room was growing dark. Exhausted, stomach rumbling, mind spinning over the same unanswerable questions. Harry fell into an uneasy sleep.**

**He dreamed that he was on a show in a zoo, with a card reading UNDERAGE WIZARD attached to his cage. People googled through the bars at him as he lay, starving and weak, on a bed of straw. He saw Dobby’s face in the crowd and shouted out, asking for help, but Dobby called, “Harry Potter is safe there, sir!” and vanished. Then the Dursleys appeared and Dudley rattled the bars of the cage, laughing at him.**

“Dad has some weird dreams.”

“It’s creepy, that’s what it is.”

**“Stop it,” Harry muttered as the rattling pounded in his sore head. “Leave me alone … cut it out … I’m trying to sleep. …”**

**He opened his eyes. Moonlight was shining through the bars on the window. And someone** **_was_ ** **ogling through the bars at him: a freckle-faced, red-haired, long-nosed someone.**

They all started laughing, knowing who was outside before it was even read, and realizing just how their Dad described their Uncle.

**Ron Weasley was outside Harry’s window.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember that this belongs to J.K. Rowling, I'm just trying to have some fun. I'll update next week. Hope you like!


	3. The Burrow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry meets the Weasleys

**Chapter 3: The Burrow**

****  
  


**“Ron!” breathed Harry, creeping to the window and pushing it up so they could talk through the bars. “Ron, how did you — What the — ?”**

**Harry’s mouth fell open as the full impact of what he was seeing hit him. Ron was leaning out of the back window of an old turquoise car, which was parked in midair. Grinning at Harry from the front seats were Fred and George, Ron’s elder twin brothers.**

**“All right, Harry?” asked George.**

“Of course he’s not alright! He’s been stuck in his room for three days, given terrible food, and has bars on his windows.”

**“What’s been going on?” said Ron. “Why haven’t you been answering my letters? I’ve asked you to stay about twelve times, and then Dad came home and said you’d got an official warning for using magic in front of Muggles — ”**

**“It wasn’t me — and how did he know?”**

**“He works for the Ministry,” said Ron. “You know we’re not supposed to do spells outside school — ”**

“And yet he’s the one in the flying car.”

**“You should talk,” said Harry, staring at the floating car.**

**“Oh, this doesn’t count,” said Ron. “We’re only borrowing this. It’s Dad’s, we didn’t enchant it. But doing magic in front of those Muggles you live with — ”**

**“I told you, I didn’t — but it’ll take too long to explain now — look, can you tell them at Hogwarts that the Dursleys have locked me up and won’t let me come back, and obviously I can’t magic myself out, because the Ministry’ll think that’s the second spell I’ve done in three days, so — ”**

**“Stop gibbering,” said Ron. “We’ve come to take you home with us.”**

“And how do you think you’ll do that? There are  _ bars  _ on the window. You can’t use magic, so what are you going to use?” 

**“But you can’t magic me out either — ”**

**“We don’t need to,” said Ron, jerking his head toward the front seat and grinning. “You forget who I’ve got with me.”**

**“Tie that around the bars,” said Fred, throwing the end of a rope to Harry.**

“Oh.” 

**“If the Dursleys wake up, I’m dead,” said Harry as he tied the rope tightly around a bar and Fred revved up the car.**

**“Don’t worry,” said Fred, “and stand back.”**

**Harry moved back into the shadows next to Hedwig, who seemed to have realized how important this was and kept still and silent. The car revved louder and louder and suddenly, with a crunching noise, the bars were pulled clean out of the window as Fred drove straight up in the air. Harry ran back to the window to see the bars dangling a few feet above the ground. Panting, Ron hoisted them up into the car. Harry listened anxiously, but there was no sound from the Dursleys’ bedroom.**

_ They must have planned this out, because they’re doing a pretty good job so far,  _ thought Al.

**When the bars were safely in the back seat with Ron, Fred reversed as close as possible to Harry’s window.**

**“Get in,” Ron said.**

**“But all my Hogwarts stuff — my wand — my broomstick — ”**

**“Where is it?”**

**“Locked in the cupboard under the stairs, and I can’t get out of this room — ”**

**“No problem,” said George from the front passenger seat. “Out of the way, Harry.”**

**Fred and George climbed catlike through the window into Harry’s room. You had to hand it to them, thought Harry, as George took an ordinary hairpin from his pocket and started to pick the lock.**

**“A lot of wizards think it’s a waste of time, knowing this sort of Muggle trick,” said Fred, “but we feel they’re skills worth learning, even if they are a bit slow.”**

**There was a small click and the door swung open.**

“Nice!”

**“So — we’ll get your trunk — you grab anything you need from your room and hand it out to Ron,” whispered George.**

“They are scarily good at this.”

“I know, right? They must have done something like this before. Well, either that or they’re just really good at thinking on their feet.”

**“Watch out for the bottom stair — it creaks,” Harry whispered back as the twins disappeared onto the dark landing.**

**Harry dashed around his room, collecting his things and passing them out of the window to Ron. Then he went to help Fred and George heave his trunk up the stairs. Harry heard Uncle Vernon cough.**

**At last, panting, they reached the landing, then carried the trunk through Harry’s room to the open window. Fred climbed back into the car to pull with Ron, and Harry and George pushed from the bedroom side. Inch by inch, the trunk slid through the window.**

**Uncle Vernon coughed again.**

**“A bit more,” panted Fred, who was pulling from inside the car.**

**“One good push — ”**

**Harry and George threw their shoulders against the trunk and it slid out of the window into the back seat of the car.**

**“Okay, let’s go,” George whispered.**

“Wait,” exclaimed Lily, “you forgot Hedwig!” 

**But as Harry climbed onto the windowsill there came a sudden loud screech from behind him, followed immediately by the thunder of Uncle Vernon’s voice.**

**“THAT RUDDY OWL!”**

**“I’ve forgotten Hedwig!”**

**Harry tore back across the room as the landing light clicked on — he snatched up Hedwig’s cage, dashed to the window, and passed it out to Ron. He was scrambling back onto the chest of drawers when Uncle Vernon hammered on the unlocked door — and it crashed open.**

**For a split second, Uncle Vernon stood framed in the doorway; then he let out a bellow like an angry bull and dived at Harry, grabbing him by the ankle.** They all gasped. 

**Ron, Fred, and George seized Harry’s arms and pulled as hard as they could.**

**“Petunia!” roared Uncle Vernon. “He’s getting away! HE’S GETTING AWAY!”**

“Wait, if they don’t want Dad, why don’t they just let him go? I mean, even if it’s to a magic school, it means that they can be without him for what, nine months? Wouldn’t that make them happy? Not that I want them happy, it’s just that if they let him go there wouldn’t be this much of a mess, you know?”

“They’re cruel people. They want him gone, but they don’t want him learning magic. They don’t seem to want him to be happy.” 

**But the Weasleys gave a gigantic tug and Harry’s leg slid out of Uncle Vernon’s grasp — Harry was in the car — he’d slammed the door shut —**

**“Put your foot down, Fred!” yelled Ron, and the car shot suddenly toward the moon. Harry couldn’t believe it — he was free. He rolled down the window, the night air whipping his hair, and looked back at the shrinking rooftops of Privet Drive. Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley were all hanging, dumbstruck, out of Harry’s window.**

**“See you next summer!” Harry yelled. The Weasleys roared with laughter and Harry settled back in his seat, grinning from ear to ear.**

“Wow, dad’s got some-”

“James, don’t you dare finish that sentence.”

**“Let Hedwig out,” he told Ron. “She can fly behind us. She hasn’t had a chance to stretch her wings for ages.”**

**George handed the hairpin to Ron and, a moment later, Hedwig soared joyfully out of the window to glide alongside them like a ghost.**

**“So — what’s the story, Harry?” said Ron impatiently.**

**“What’s been happening?” Harry told them all about Dobby, the warning he’d given Harry and the fiasco of the violet pudding. There was a long, shocked silence when he had finished.**

**“Very fishy,” said Fred finally.**

**“Definitely dodgy,” agreed George. “So he wouldn’t even tell you who’s supposed to be plotting all this stuff?”**

**“I don’t think he could,” said Harry. “I told you, every time he got close to letting something slip, he started banging his head against the wall.”**

**He saw Fred and George look at each other.**

**“What, you think he was lying to me?” said Harry. “Well,” said Fred, “put it this way — house-elves have got powerful magic of their own, but they can’t usually use it without their master’s permission. I reckon old Dobby was sent to stop you coming to Hogwarts. Someone’s idea of a joke. Can you think of anyone at school with a grudge against you?” “Yes,” said Harry and Ron together, instantly.**

Everyone in the room sat straight up, surprised that anyone wouldn’t like their family, knowing how kind they were. 

**“Draco Malfoy,” Harry explained. “He hates me.”**

“He hates you? You guys never really talk, but you’ve never seemed to dislike each other…” 

“People change, Lily. They must have talked it out eventually.” 

**“Draco Malfoy?” said George, turning around. “Not Lucius Malfoy’s son?”**

They all scowled when they heard Lucius Malfoy. They all knew he was a Death Eater, someone who hates muggles and muggle borns. 

**“Must be, it’s not a very common name, is it?” said Harry.**

**“Why?”**

**“I’ve heard Dad talking about him,” said George. “He was a big supporter of You-Know-Who.”**

The kids shook their heads, knowing that, yes, he was a big supporter of the man that killed so many people, and many of them from their family or friends of the family. 

**“And when You-Know-Who disappeared,” said Fred, craning around to look at Harry, “Lucius Malfoy came back saying he’d never meant any of it. Load of dung — Dad reckons he was right in You-Know-Who’s inner circle.”**

**Harry had heard these rumors about Malfoy’s family before, and they didn’t surprise him at all. Malfoy made Dudley Dursley look like a kind, thoughtful, and sensitive boy.**

**“I don’t know whether the Malfoys own a house-elf. …” said Harry.**

“They don’t own one. Scorpius said they don’t.”

**“Well, whoever owns him will be an old wizarding family, and they’ll be rich,” said Fred. “Yeah, Mum’s always wishing we had a house-elf to do the ironing,” said George. “But all we’ve got is a lousy old ghoul in the attic and gnomes all over the garden. House-elves come with big old manors and castles and places like that; you wouldn’t catch one in our house. …”**

**Harry was silent. Judging by the fact that Draco Malfoy usually had the best of everything, his family was rolling in wizard gold; he could just see Malfoy strutting around a large manor house. Sending the family servant to stop Harry from going back to Hogwarts also sounded exactly like the sort of thing Malfoy would do. Had Harry been stupid to take Dobby seriously?**

**“I’m glad we came to get you, anyway,” said Ron. “I was getting really worried when you didn’t answer any of my letters. I thought it was Errol’s fault at first — ” “Who’s Errol?” “Our owl. He’s ancient. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d collapsed on a delivery. So then I tried to borrow Hermes — ”**

**“Who?”**

**“The owl Mum and Dad bought Percy when he was made prefect,” said Fred from the front.**

**“But Percy wouldn’t lend him to me,” said Ron. “Said he needed him.”**

**“Percy’s been acting very oddly this summer,” said George, frowning. “And he has been sending a lot of letters and spending a load of time shut up in his room. … I mean, there’s only so many times you can polish a prefect badge. … You’re driving too far west, Fred,” he added, pointing at a compass on the dashboard. Fred twiddled the steering wheel.**

**“So, does your dad know you’ve got the car?” said Harry, guessing the answer.**

“Of course not Dad, otherwise he’d be with them. They’re not old enough to drive. Even if the car is flying.” 

**“Er, no,” said Ron, “he had to work tonight. Hopefully we’ll be able to get it back in the garage without Mum noticing we flew it.”**

**“What does your dad do at the Ministry of Magic, anyway?”**

**“He works in the most boring department,” said Ron. “The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office.”**

**“The what?”**

**“It’s all to do with bewitching things that are Muggle-made, you know, in case they end up back in a Muggle shop or house. Like, last year, some old witch died and her tea set was sold to an antiques shop. This Muggle woman bought it, took it home, and tried to serve her friends tea in it. It was a nightmare — Dad was working overtime for weeks.”**

“Well that sucks.”

**“What happened?”**

**“The teapot went berserk and squirted boiling tea all over the place and one man ended up in the hospital with the sugar tongs clamped to his nose. Dad was going frantic — it’s only him and an old warlock called Perkins in the office — and they had to do Memory Charms and all sorts of stuff to cover it up — ”**

**“But your dad — this car — ”**

**Fred laughed. “Yeah, Dad’s crazy about everything to do with Muggles; our shed’s full of Muggle stuff. He takes it apart, puts spells on it, and puts it back together again. If he raided our house he’d have to put himself under arrest. It drives Mum mad.”**

“It still does,” said Al. “She’s throwing things out.”

**“That’s the main road,” said George, peering down through the windshield. “We’ll be there in ten minutes. … Just as well, it’s getting light. …”**

**A faint pinkish glow was visible along the horizon to the east. Fred brought the car lower, and Harry saw a dark patchwork of fields and clumps of trees.**

**“We’re a little way outside the village,” said George. “Ottery St. Catchpole.”**

**Lower and lower went the flying car. The edge of a brilliant red sun was now gleaming through the trees.**

**“Touchdown!” said Fred as, with a slight bump, they hit the ground. They had landed next to a tumbledown garage in a small yard, and Harry looked out for the first time at Ron’s house.**

**It looked as though it had once been a large stone pigpen, but extra rooms had been added here and there until it was several stories high and so crooked it looked as though it were held up by magic (which, Harry reminded himself, it probably was). Four or five chimneys were perched on top of the red roof. A lopsided sign stuck in the ground near the entrance read, THE BURROW. Around the front door lay a jumble of rubber boots and a very rusty cauldron. Several fat brown chickens were pecking their way around the yard.**

**“It’s not much,” said Ron.**

**“It’s** **_wonderful_ ** **,” said Harry happily, thinking of Privet Drive.**

**They got out of the car. “Now, we’ll go upstairs really quietly,” said Fred, “and wait for Mum to call us for breakfast. Then, Ron, you come bounding downstairs going, ‘Mum, look who turned up in the night!’’ and she’ll be all pleased to see Harry and no one need ever know we flew the car”**

“That’s what they came up with? That’s totally not going to work. The questions of ‘how did he get here,’ ‘who brought him here,’ and ‘if he wasn’t answering your letters, how did he know where we lived?’” 

**“Right,” said Ron. “Come on, Harry, I sleep at the — at the top — ”**

**Ron had gone a nasty greenish color, his eyes fixed on the house. The other three wheeled around.**

**Mrs. Weasley was marching across the yard, scattering chickens, and for a short, plump, kind-faced woman, it was remarkable how much she looked like a saber-toothed tiger.**

**“Ah,” said Fred.**

**“Oh, dear,” said George.**

**Mrs. Weasley came to a halt in front of them, her hands on her hips, staring from one guilty face to the next. She was wearing a flowered apron with a wand sticking out of the pocket.**

“Uh oh,” they all said, grimacing at what they knew would come next. They didn’t really want to hear about their Dad and Uncles getting yelled at. Even if it was because they did something they shouldn’t have, though it was for the greater good. 

**“So,” she said.**

**“ ’Morning, Mum,” said George, in what he clearly thought was a jaunty, winning voice. “Have you any idea how worried I’ve been?” said Mrs. Weasley in a deadly whisper.**

**“Sorry, Mum, but see, we had to — ”**

**All three of Mrs. Weasley’s sons were taller than she was, but they cowered as her rage broke over them.**

**_“Beds empty! No note! Car gone — could have crashed — out of my mind with worry — did you care? — never, as long as I’ve lived — you wait until your father gets home, we never had trouble like this from Bill or Charlie or Percy — ”_ **

“Grandma had a favorite? Not cool.” 

**“Perfect Percy,” muttered Fred.**

**“YOU COULD DO WITH TAKING A LEAF OUT OF PERCY’S BOOK!” yelled Mrs. Weasley, prodding a finger in Fred’s chest. “You could have died, you could have been seen, you could have lost your father his** **_job_ ** **— ”**

“Wow. I didn’t even think about that. I suppose they should have talked it out with their parents before getting him, even though I’m glad he’s not there anymore I don’t want Grandpa to lose his job.” 

**It seemed to go on for hours. Mrs. Weasley had shouted herself hoarse before she turned on Harry, who backed away.**

“You did nothing wrong Dad, she won’t yell at you. Don’t worry about it.” 

**“I’m very pleased to see you, Harry, dear,” she said. “Come in and have some breakfast.” She turned and walked back into the house and Harry, after a nervous glance at Ron, who nodded encouragingly, followed her.**

**The kitchen was small and rather cramped. There was a scrubbed wooden table and chairs in the middle, and Harry sat down on the edge of his seat, looking around. He had never been in a wizard house before.**

The room got somber. They all remembered that their dad didn’t grow up with his parents, with witches and wizards. With people around him who loved him. Instead he lived with those wretched people who hated him. Who mistreated him. 

**The clock on the wall opposite him had only one hand and no numbers at all. Written around the edge were things like Time to make tea, Time to feed the chickens, and You’re late. Books were stacked three deep on the mantelpiece, books with titles like Charm Your Own Cheese, Enchantment in Baking, and One Minute Feasts — It’s Magic! And unless Harry’s ears were deceiving him, the old radio next to the sink had just announced that coming up was “Witching Hour, with the popular singing sorceress, Celestina Warbeck.”**

**Mrs. Weasley was clattering around, cooking breakfast a little haphazardly, throwing dirty looks at her sons as she threw sausages into the frying pan. Every now and then she muttered things like “don’t know what you were thinking of,” and “never would have believed it.”**

“Sounds a bit like mum,” muttered James, his mum’s reaction to something he did his second year at Hogwarts. Got detention for a week and a very loud howler. 

**“I don’t blame** **_you_ ** **, dear,” she assured Harry, tipping eight or nine sausages onto his plate. “Arthur and I have been worried about you, too. Just last night we were saying we’d come and get you ourselves if you hadn’t written back to Ron by Friday. But really” (she was now adding three fried eggs to his plate), “flying an illegal car halfway across the country — anyone could have seen you — ” She flicked her wand casually at the dishes in the sink, which began to clean themselves, clinking gently in the background.**

**“It was cloudy, Mum!” said Fred.**

**“You keep your mouth closed while you’re eating!” Mrs. Weasley snapped.**

**“They were starving him, Mum!” said George.**

**“And you!” said Mrs. Weasley, but it was with a slightly softened expression that she started cutting Harry bread and buttering it for him.**

“Why didn’t she listen to them?”

“She thought they were just making it up. Trying to get out of being punished. I mean, we’ve all lied - saying things that we think might get us out of trouble. I bet she knows now. She should have listened, but I understand why she didn’t believe him.” 

**At that moment there was a diversion in the form of a small, redheaded figure in a long nightdress, who appeared in the kitchen, gave a small squeal, and ran out again.**

**“Ginny,” said Ron in an undertone to Harry. “My sister. She’s been talking about you all summer.”**

“Oh, please tell me mum wasn’t a fangirl,” groaned James. 

**“Yeah, she’ll be wanting your autograph, Harry,” Fred said with a grin, but he caught his mother’s eye and bent his face over his plate without another word. Nothing more was said until all four plates were clean, which took a surprisingly short time.**

**“Blimey, I’m tired,” yawned Fred, setting down his knife and fork at last. “I think I’ll go to bed and — ”**

**“You will not,” snapped Mrs. Weasley. “It’s your own fault you’ve been up all night. You’re going to de-gnome the garden for me; they’re getting completely out of hand again — ”**

The kids groaned. They hated de-gnoming the garden. 

**“Oh, Mum — ”**

**“And you two,” she said, glaring at Ron and Fred. “You can go up to bed, dear,” she added to Harry. “You didn’t ask them to fly that wretched car — ”**

**But Harry, who felt wide awake, said quickly, “I’ll help Ron. I’ve never seen a de-gnoming — ”**

**“That’s very sweet of you, dear, but it’s dull work,” said Mrs. Weasley. “Now, let’s see what Lockhart’s got to say on the subject — ” And she pulled a heavy book from the stack on the mantelpiece. George groaned.**

**“Mum, we know how to de-gnome a garden — ”**

**Harry looked at the cover of Mrs. Weasley’s book. Written across it in fancy gold letters were the words Gilderoy Lockhart’s Guide to Household Pests. There was a big photograph on the front of a very good-looking wizard with wavy blond hair and bright blue eyes. As always in the wizarding world, the photograph was moving; the wizard, who Harry supposed was Gilderoy Lockhart, kept winking cheekily up at them all. Mrs. Weasley beamed down at him.**

“Wait - I think I’ve heard about him somewhere.” said Teddy, “I just can’t remember…” 

**“Oh, he is marvelous,” she said. “He knows his household pests, all right, it’s a wonderful book. …”**

**“Mum fancies him,” said Fred, in a very audible whisper. “Don’t be so ridiculous, Fred,” said Mrs. Weasley, her cheeks rather pink.**

**“All right, if you think you know better than Lockhart, you can go and get on with it, and woe betide you if there’s a single gnome in that garden when I come out to inspect it.”**

**Yawning and grumbling, the Weasleys slouched outside with Harry behind them. The garden was large, and in Harry’s eyes, exactly what a garden should be. The Dursleys wouldn’t have liked it — there were plenty of weeds, and the grass needed cutting — but there were gnarled trees all around the walls, plants Harry had never seen spilling from every flower bed, and a big green pond full of frogs.**

Everyone in the room smiled, now wanting to go to their grandparent’s place. They loved the house, the garden, everything about the place. 

**“Muggles have garden gnomes, too, you know,” Harry told Ron as they crossed the lawn.**

**“Yeah, I’ve seen those things they think are gnomes,” said Ron, bent double with his head in a peony bush, “like fat little Santa Clauses with fishing rods. …”**

“See, now  _ those  _ gnomes are funny. Not these ones.” 

**There was a violent scuffling noise, the peony bush shuddered, and Ron straightened up. “This is a gnome,” he said grimly.**

**“Gerroff me! Gerroff me!” squealed the gnome. It was certainly nothing like Santa Claus. It was small and leathery looking, with a large, knobby, bald head exactly like a potato. Ron held it at arm’s length as it kicked out at him with its horny little feet; he grasped it around the ankles and turned it upside down.**

“Ugly little things, aren’t they,” Lily said, scrunching her nose like they were right in front of her.

**“This is what you have to do,” he said. He raised the gnome above his head (“Gerroff me!”) and started to swing it in great circles like a lasso. Seeing the shocked look on Harry’s face, Ron added, “It doesn’t** **_hurt_ ** **them — you’ve just got to make them really dizzy so they can’t find their way back to the gnomeholes.”**

**He let go of the gnome’s ankles: It flew twenty feet into the air and landed with a thud in the field over the hedge.**

**“Pitiful,” said Fred. “I bet I can get mine beyond that stump.”**

**Harry learned quickly not to feel too sorry for the gnomes. He decided just to drop the first one he caught over the hedge, but the gnome, sensing weakness, sank its razor-sharp teeth into Harry’s finger and he had a hard job shaking it off — until —**

**“Wow, Harry — that must’ve been fifty feet. …”**

“I bet I can get it farther,” said James. 

“I sincerely doubt it. I mean, if none of them can get it any farther - or even get close to fifty feet…” 

“I can do it! You’ve just got to believe in yourself, Al.” 

**The air was soon thick with flying gnomes.**

**“See, they’re not too bright,” said George, seizing five or six gnomes at once.” The moment they know the de-gnoming’s going on they storm up to have a look. You’d think they’d have learned by now just to stay put.”**

**Soon, the crowd of gnomes in the field started walking away in a straggling line, their little shoulders hunched.**

**“They’ll be back,” said Ron as they watched the gnomes disappear into the hedge on the other side of the field. “They love it here. … Dad’s too soft with them; he thinks they’re funny. …”**

“They are!”

**Just then, the front door slammed.**

**“He’s back!” said George.**

**“Dad’s home!”**

“Grandpa!” They smiled, Lily clapping her hands. 

**They hurried through the garden and back into the house. Mr. Weasley was slumped in a kitchen chair with his glasses off and his eyes closed. He was a thin man, going bald, but the little hair he had was as red as any of his children’s. He was wearing long green robes, which were dusty and travel-worn.**

**“What a night,” he mumbled, groping for the teapot as they all sat down around him. “Nine raids. Nine! And old Mundungus Fletcher tried to put a hex on me when I had my back turned. …” Mr. Weasley took a long gulp of tea and sighed.**

**“Find anything, Dad?” said Fred eagerly.**

**“All I got were a few shrinking door keys and a biting kettle,” yawned Mr. Weasley. “There was some pretty nasty stuff that wasn’t my department, though. Mortlake was taken away for questioning about some extremely odd ferrets, but that’s the Committee on Experimental Charms, thank goodness. …”**

**“Why would anyone bother making door keys shrink?” said George.**

“Why wouldn’t they?” 

**“Just Muggle-baiting,” sighed Mr. Weasley. “Sell them a key that keeps shrinking to nothing so they can never find it when they need it. … Of course, it’s very hard to convict anyone because no Muggle would admit their key keeps shrinking — they’ll insist they just keep losing it. Bless them, they’ll go to any lengths to ignore magic, even if it’s staring them in the face. … But the things our lot have taken to enchanting, you wouldn’t believe — ”**

**“LIKE CARS, FOR INSTANCE?”**

“Uh oh”

**Mrs. Weasley had appeared, holding a long poker like a sword. Mr. Weasley’s eyes jerked open. He stared guiltily at his wife.**

**“C-cars, Molly, dear?”**

“Lie! Pretend it never happened!”

“Lying is wrong, James. You shouldn’t lie or encourage other people to lie either.”

“Whatever you say,” said James, waving his hands as if to say ‘not gonna happen’. 

**“Yes, Arthur, cars,” said Mrs. Weasley, her eyes flashing. “Imagine a wizard buying a rusty old car and telling his wife all he wanted to do with it was take it apart to see how it worked, while really he was enchanting it to make it** **_fly_ ** **.”**

**Mr. Weasley blinked.**

**“Well, dear, I think you’ll find that he would be quite within the law to do that, even if — er — he maybe would have done better to, um, tell his wife the truth. … There’s a loophole in the law, you’ll find. … As long as he wasn’t** **_intending_ ** **to fly the car, the fact that the car** **_could_ ** **fly wouldn’t — ”**

**“Arthur Weasley, you made sure there was a loophole when you wrote that law!”**

“No way!” 

“Is that where Uncle George gets it from?” 

**shouted Mrs. Weasley. “Just so you could carry on tinkering with all that Muggle rubbish in your shed! And for your information, Harry arrived this morning in the car you weren’t intending to fly!”**

**“Harry?” said Mr. Weasley blankly. “Harry who?”**

“Oh my gosh. Someone doesn’t know who dad is!” exclaimed Al. 

“Well, there’s a first time for everything I suppose,” said Teddy. 

**He looked around, saw Harry, and jumped. “Good lord, is it Harry Potter? Very pleased to meet you, Ron’s told us so much about — ”**

**_“Your sons flew that car to Harry’s house and back last night!”_ ** **shouted Mrs. Weasley. “What have you got to say about that, eh?”**

**“Did you really?” said Mr. Weasley eagerly. “Did it go all right? I — I mean,” he faltered as sparks flew from Mrs. Weasley’s eyes, “that — that was very wrong, boys — very wrong indeed. …”**

“Oh, Grandpa, you really shouldn’t have said that in front of Grandma.”

“Yeah. You should have whispered it to them instead,” James said, while they all laughed at their Grandpa’s misfortune of, well, praising them, rather than scolding them. 

“If someone is screaming, that usually doesn’t mean anything good, you know.” 

**“Let’s leave them to it,” Ron muttered to Harry as Mrs. Weasley swelled like a bullfrog. “Come on, I’ll show you my bedroom.”**

**They slipped out of the kitchen and down a narrow passageway to an uneven staircase, which wound its way, zigzagging up through the house. On the third landing, a door stood ajar. Harry just caught sight of a pair of bright brown eyes staring at him before it closed with a snap.**

**“Ginny,” said Ron. “You don’t know how weird it is for her to be this shy. She never shuts up normally — ”**

They all smiled, shaking their heads at their mum’s obvious crush on their dad.

**They climbed two more flights until they reached a door with peeling paint and a small plaque on it, saying RONALD’S ROOM.**

**Harry stepped in, his head almost touching the sloping ceiling, and blinked. It was like walking into a furnace: Nearly everything in Ron’s room seemed to be a violent shade of orange: the bedspread, the walls, even the ceiling. Then Harry realized that Ron had covered nearly every inch of the shabby wallpaper with posters of the same seven witches and wizards, all wearing bright orange robes, carrying broomsticks, and waving energetically.**

**“Your Quidditch team?” said Harry.**

James threw his hands up and whooped, thrilled to be hearing about his favoruite sport.

**“The Chudley Cannons,” said Ron, pointing at the orange bedspread, which was emblazoned with two giant black C’s and a speeding cannonball. “Ninth in the league.”**

“They’re terrible.”

“No they’re not!”

“Yeah, Al, they are,” James said, ranting about how many flaws they had, before being interrupted by Lily saying, “guys it doesn’t matter if they’re good or not. Can we just get on with it!” 

James and Al grumbled, before giving in, and Al started to read again. 

**Ron’s school spellbooks were stacked untidily in a corner, next to a pile of comics that all seemed to feature** **_The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle_ ** **. Ron’s magic wand was lying on top of a fish tank full of frog spawn on the windowsill, next to his fat gray rat, Scabbers, who was snoozing in a patch of sun.**

**Harry stepped over a pack of Self-Shuffling playing cards on the floor and looked out of the tiny window. In the field far below he could see a gang of gnomes sneaking one by one back through the Weasleys’ hedge. Then he turned to look at Ron, who was watching him almost nervously, as though waiting for his opinion.**

**“It’s a bit small,” said Ron quickly.**

**“Not like that room you had with the Muggles. And I’m right underneath the ghoul in the attic; he’s always banging on the pipes and groaning. …”**

**But Harry, grinning widely, said, “This is the best house I’ve ever been in.”**

The kids nodded their heads, agreeing. There’s no place like their grandparent’s place. 

**Ron’s ears went pink.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Grace’s Note: I just want to let you know their ages: Lily is nine, Albus is 11, James is 13, and Teddy is 18. I looked up their age differences and read their ages. I’m sorry if their ages are off, I did my best to find their right ages.   
> I’ll try and update once or twice a week. Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed, and remember, I don’t own the book, J.K. Rowling does. I’m just trying to have some fun :)


	4. Please read this! Important

**Please read this!**

  
  


First off, I’m sorry that this is not what you were expecting. I have been sick this entire week, barely able to get out of bed, and when I did get out of bed I almost fell straight away. Stomach ache, headache and nausea. Yes, I know it’s not serious like the virus but it still hurts. I still feel sick. 

Yesterday I just found out that my cousin (who is only a year younger than myself) has just committed suicide. I don’t know if there’s going to be a planned funeral, or if they’re not going to have one. My Aunt called my Dad at  _ midnight _ asking him if he could come over. 

I used to go over to her house to watch movies and to just hang out. I feel terrible, and I can’t imagine how her Grandmother must feel. I was talking to my Mother about this, and she told me that she hung herself. It’s just been a rollercoaster of emotions. As I’m writing this, I’m trying to hold back my tears, which is hard to do because I cry easily. 

I would also ask you to think about my niece and her husband, who work in the hospital. She works with the elderly, so she is most likely to be alright, but her husband works in the emergency room. They have kids, so I’m hoping they will be alright throughout this mess. 

If any of you pray, I would appreciate it if you would. If you don’t pray, that’s alright too. 

This work will be put on hold for the next week or two so I can get my emotions in check. I will  _ not  _ stop working on this fic, I just need to put my focus on family for the next couple weeks. If I can, then I will post a chapter sooner, I’m just saying to not expect it so soon. 

I appreciate every single one of you for reading this fic, and I hope that you will be patient with me. This note will be deleted sometime next week. 

-Grace. 

**Author's Note:**

> Grace's Note: Should I continue or not? Let me know in the comments below! Thanks for reading. Hope you liked it.  
> You can also find this on my other name smile-with0me on ff.net which I will be posting new chapters up on first! So far there are 4 chapters on there. Remember, I don't own this, it belongs to J.K Rowling, I'm making no money off this, I'm just trying to have some fun!


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